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From: Acts 5:17-26

The Apostles Are Arrested and Miraculously Freed

[17] But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of
the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy [18] they arrested the Apostles and put
them in the common prison. [19] But at night an angel of the Lord opened the
prison doors and brought them out and said, [20] “Go and stand in the temple
and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” [21] And when they heard
this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught.

Now the high priest came and those who were with him and called together the
council and all the senate of Israel, and sent (officers) to the prison to have them
brought. [22] But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison and
they returned and reported, [23] “We found the prison securely locked and the
sentries standing at the doors, but when we opened it we found no one inside.”
[24] Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words,
they were much perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. [25]
And some one came and told them, “The men whom you put in prison are stan-
ding in the temple and teaching the people.”

The Apostles Before the Sanhedrin

[26] Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but without vio-
lence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

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Commentary:

19. In Sacred Scripture we meet angels as messengers of God and also as me-
diators, guardians and ministers of divine justice. Abraham sent his servant on a
mission to his kindred and told him, “The Lord will send his angel before you and
prosper your way” (Genesis 24:7, 40). Tobit, Lot and his family, Daniel and his
companions, Judith, etc., also experienced the help of angels. The Psalms refer
to trust in the angels (cf. Psalm 34:8; 91:11-13) and the continuous help they
render men in obedience to God’s command.

This episode of the freeing of the Apostles is one of the examples the “St. Pius
V Catechism” gives to illustrate “the countless benefits which the Lord distri-
butes among men through angels, His interpreters and ministers, sent only in
isolated cases but appointed from our birth to watch over us, and constituted for
the salvation of every individual person” (IV, 9, 6).

This means, therefore, that the angels should have a place in a Christian’s per-
sonal piety: “I ask our Lord that, during our stay on this earth of ours, we may
never be parted from our Divine Traveling Companion. To ensure this, let us also
become firmer friends of the Holy Guardian Angels. We all need a lot of compa-
ny, company from Heaven and company on earth. Have great devotion to the
Holy Angels” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 315).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

He is Risen! Truly Risen!

A blessed Eastertide to all!